What vegetables are you planting this year in your garden?

[Pema]

Has anyone tried to grown squash, including zucchinis, UPWARDS to save space?

I have, and some work while others don't. It depends on how flexible the vines are and how heavy the fruits are. Delicatas climb pretty well (with guidance) even though their fruits are pretty heavy. I've never been able to get the summer squashes to climb.

Has anyone tried to grown cucumbers UPWARDS to save space?

YES! They were lemon cukes (small fruits), but I've seen it done with larger ones, too.

[davina61]

Cucumbers will grow up if you use the growing jars to support them, first used to make them grow straight!!

[ChrissyRyan]

Cucumbers will grow up if you use the growing jars to support them, first used to make them grow straight!!

I never heard of growing jars.  I will need to look that up.

Chrissy

[ChrissyRyan]

Thanks for the responses.

[ChrissyRyan]

Are pablano peppers very hot? 

I decided to plant one.  I know green peppers and mild banana peppers are not hot.


I saw something called orange lunchbox peppers for sale.  Are those tasty?

[ChrissyRyan]

I think the jalapeño and thin chili peppers are hot.  Sometimes I use those to prepare chili.

At least, the thin ones are rather hot.

[ChrissyRyan]

Sometimes I will eat two peppers from the same plant.  It is odd that one can be very hot and the other mild.

Has that ever happened to you?

Chrissy

[ChrissyRyan]

I may try growing lettuce and/or cilantro.

[Tig58072]

Picked up tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zukini, strawberry's and cantaloupe plants today. Have to wait a couple days as it cold and rainy now. Onions, peas and beans are up but potatoes not yet.
Still have to plant radishes and carrots and lettuce.
Beets didn't come. Old seed I'm guessing.

[ChrissyRyan]

I like growing vegetables.  I know where they came from, they are organic, and they are fresh.

[Dances With Trees]

I planned on planting a garden. Just the basics: potatoes, beans and corn. Once upon a time I prepped, planted, weeded, and maintained a one-acre truck farm virtually by myself. This year, I'm hoping to put out a few starters and tend to berry bushes since my daughter and her partner are far too busy to help with a basic garden (and they are, it wasn't an excuse). Oscar Wilde was right: youth is wasted on the young. Few things should be more important than a garden.

[ChrissyRyan]

Orchards are good too. 

[ChrissyRyan]

Lettuce grew nicely.  Something ate some leaves.  Gnawed them off rather than holes in the leaves.   So I ate the rest.

I left the plant in the ground and it is producing more leaves.  I also protected it better, so I may get more Romaine lettuce to eat.

I wonder how many more leaves will sprout up. 

[davina61]

I had some broad beans from mums garden, nice with my dinner.

[ChrissyRyan]

I still plan to grow some carrots in the same general area as my tomatoes.

These will be from seeds.

[ChrissyRyan]

Some naughty animal ate my sunflower seeds last year and I got no new sunflowers.

[ChrissyRyan]

In most cases, there are dozens of plants of each of these:

Garlic (13 varieties)
Onions (just scallions)
Spinach (5 varieties)
Peas (3 varieties)
Cilantro (4 varieties)
Broccoli (4 varieties)
Cauliflower (3 varieties)
Cabbage (2 varieties)
Kohlrabi (2 varieties)
Lettuce (6 varieties)
Arugula (3 varieties)
Mustard greens (3 varieties)
Brussels sprouts
Kale (5 varieties)
Collards
Eggplant (2 varieties)
Peppers (6 varieties; 1 sweet, 5 different hot)
Daikon (2 varieties)
Snap beans (1 bush, 2 pole)

We also have pears, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and figs.

Pema,


How is your garden coming along?


Chrissy

[Pema]

Pema,


How is your garden coming along?


Chrissy

Hi, Chrissy. Thank you for asking. It's a mixed bag, as it always is. The moles are having a heyday, just like always. They destroy the roots of plants and create air pockets in the soil beneath them, and that severely hampers their growth. I still have more wins than losses, so I try to focus on that. I have a couple of mole traps out but haven't yet caught one.

We've been eating huge salads for dinner every night for at least a month, which means that all of the salad greens are doing very well. But they're winding down in the summer heat. Same for the peas.

The garlic has all been harvested and is hanging in the garage to cure. We got an excellent supply of garlic scapes, half of which are still in the refrigerator and available for daily use. The garlic suffers worse than most due to the moles. I doubt I'll have enough this year to supply us for a year and replant next year's. So I'll probably have to buy more seed garlic this fall. That's OK. I just really need to do something about the moles.

The broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are always difficult due to the too-sandy soil, the moles, and the chipmunk and rabbit. It's a battlezone out here. Same with the kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts. I'd guess we get about a 75% success rate.

Peppers and eggplant are slowly growing as they do here. By the end of July, they should be large bushes and have unripe fruit on them. That's the hope anyway.

The beans are coming along. Like yours, we have small beans on the bush plants. The pole beans are climbing away and starting to develop flowers.

The delicata squashes are looking fantastic and already covered with fruits. They'll take a couple of months to grow and ripen. The summer squashes got off to a very slow start but are picking up steam - still smallish plants, but loaded with flowers and few small fruits.

After harvesting all of the garlic (probably 500 plants total), I replant those patches with daikon radishes, kohlrabi, basil, and mustard/arugula. The earlier-planted basils are doing well, but only about 20 plants survived (of about 50) our unexpected week away.

The flower side is just a riot of color and...everything.

So, in summary, it's pretty chaotic, but it always is, and it's wonderful.

You can see some of it here:
https://www.susans.org/index.php/topic,250897.msg2308434.html#msg2308434